


In the mall before Christmas

by GealachGirl



Category: Generation Kill
Genre: Brad knows what he wants, M/M, The Mall, and Ray's right there with him, he just has to get to it, last minute gift shopping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-20 01:52:22
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13136652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GealachGirl/pseuds/GealachGirl
Summary: Brad's in the mall on December 23 and he really regrets not doing his shopping before now. Ray left his off, too though so it's all good.





	In the mall before Christmas

Brad didn’t understand how there could be so many versions of the same handful of Christmas songs, or why they were all playing at the mall. But he did understand that it was Dec. 23 and he couldn’t complain or expect anything else.

It was his fault he was there anyway, with the crowds pressing against him and nearly drowning out his thoughts. But he had a mission and he was going to finish it, ignoring the mass of people surrounding him.

“Hi sir, how can I help you?” a dead-eyed teenager asked when he entered a store. For a moment, Brad felt a flash of annoyance, but he recognized she probably hated being here more than he did.

“I’m just looking around,” he replied and she nodded him away, already focused on the next person who’d walked in.

The air was perfumed with some caramel bullshit to get him in the mood for emptying his wallet, and Brad sighed as he pushed deeper into the store, gritting his teeth against everything. There were hundreds of people milling around, or what felt like it, and this was exactly why he’d put off the shopping.

He’d been home for about a week and half now, but this was the first time he didn’t have Ray with him. And it was the first time Brad could tear himself away from his family and friends.

Brad made it to the back of the store and picked up a bottle of lotion with flowers printed on the front. He was pretty sure he’d seen it in his sister’s bathroom before, but he wondered if he should try to get her something different that she might not buy herself.

To his left, someone bumped into his hip, and little kids darted around by his knees, and he couldn’t step back or move over without getting someone else in his space, and the Christmas music overhead was loud and endlessly bright.

Brad held onto the lotion and walked straight to the cash register, picking up a candle his mom liked on his way.

He hated the mall, and Christmas only made it worse.

 

Brad had noticed over his years in the Marines that the hardest part of being stateside, for him, was the sheer amount of people everywhere. Because the United States had decided to take their warfare to the desert and have it in the same places, the military could reuse its own infrastructure and it wasn’t too common to be surrounded by the crowds that could be found at home.

Adjusting to the difference was jarring and difficult. Like letting combat alertness fade, Brad had to take the time to get used to having people surrounding him when he wanted to go out. He’d never liked crowds either, so it usually felt like a higher hurdle he had to jump.

“Oh excuse me, excuse me,” a middle-aged woman chanted, cutting right in front of him with a train of children behind her. Brad scowled and drew in a deep breath and let her pass before he skirted around the last kid to get to the shelf of baseball-themed pint glasses he’d been walking toward.

Then with a Dodgers one in his hand, Brad was done shopping for his dad.

When he was through the checkout line, he pushed back out into the mall crowd, already dreading the next store.

“Hey good looking, you look like you want to murder everyone.” The voice floated up to him, and Brad turned his eyes to Ray’s.

Brad wasn’t the only one who’d put off the Christmas shopping, though he was the only one who had a good reason. Ray was holding several bags from stores across the mall, and Brad couldn’t help but be impressed at how far Ray had gotten.

He didn’t understand why Ray hadn’t taken advantage of his deployment to get everything out of the way, but he couldn’t deny that this would be unbearable without him.

“It would be justified,” Brad growled after _another_ person slammed into him from behind.

Ray glared after the person and rolled his eyes. “What a bunch of assholes,” he sounded serious for a second, but then he went back to normal Ray. “Don’t they know a goddamn hero’s walking in their midst? We should just let the North Koreans bomb us, with this attitude.”

“Shut up, Ray,” Brad sighed, staking out the stores around him. He didn’t have many gifts left, but he had to come up with something for Poke, his wife, and their kids. He also needed things for his nieces. “How are you doing on your list?” he asked, still looking. If he could find a directory somewhere, he felt like he could make a plan, but so far all he saw was people.

Ray held up his bags to show them off. “I’ve got everything I need. Unless I see something cool, I guess.”

Brad glanced at him from the corner of his eyes. “Are you going home?” Ray wasn’t making any move to leave and he hadn’t start saying goodbye yet, but Brad couldn’t see any reason for him to stay.

“Nah Homes, we only have the one car, so I might as well keep you company,” Ray said. He didn’t sound bothered in the slightest, even though he hated waiting.

“You can come pick me up,” Brad said slowly. He wasn’t eager for Ray to leave, but it wasn’t like he was doing any good by staying.

“And fight traffic again? I’d rather deal with you and these lazy motherfuckers,” Ray replied, nudging Brad’s arm with his elbow.

Brad sighed. “I’m glad I’m lumped in with these people,” he said. Then he finally found a toy store. “Come on, then.”  

 

“You know, I shouldn’t even be surprised you’re good at toy shopping,” Brad deadpanned while Ray examined how some cheap, battery-operated thing worked.

“Oh fuck off. You’re the one who jerks off to machines and technology,” Ray fired back. Behind him, a group of parents and kids looked scandalized.

At their horrified faces, Brad lost the fight against his smile. He was less tense than he’d been before, which had improved the consumerism experience. Of course the crowds had thinned a little as it got later, but Ray and his mouth were good company, too.

“Here, they’ll like this,” Ray said, tipping two small LEGO sets into Brad’s hands. “Legos are always a good idea. Besides, both of your nieces take after you and want to know how everything works.” Ray’s voice was fond, even though his words were supposed to be exasperated.

Brad hung onto the sets and pointed at a display of lightsabers. “For Poke’s girls?” he asked. He could imagine the little girls tearing around the house swinging them, and he loved the idea for how much fun they would have, and how annoyed but secretly delighted Poke would be.

Ray was clearly thinking the same thing because his eyes lit up and he grinned as he looked back at Brad. “You’re an evil bastard and I love you for it.”

 

They had dinner at the food court, and the bags toppling over all around them was a little ridiculous.

“Did you really save all of your shopping for now?” Brad asked between bites of his pizza. Ray nodded.

“Why would I waste my time when I could do it all at once?” he asked when he’d swallowed. Brad narrowed his eyes.

“I was gone for seven months and you couldn’t be bothered to shop online or come here before just now?”

“Well you know how much I value our quality time, Bradley,” Ray replied.

Brad rolled his eyes, but let it go. “Have you found anything cool?” he asked. Because where it stood, he just needed something for Poke. All of Brad’s family, Ray’s mom, and his other friends were taken care of.

“Just you, Iceman,” Ray said, then he took another bite of his taco. “Which means we’re almost done, right?” Ray asked through the food, wiggling his eyebrows.

Brad seriously reconsidered his attraction to this whiskey tango failure of a human, before he decided it wouldn’t be worth it to trade things like Ray’s sense of humor for a moment of peace. Besides breaking up before Christmas would be messy.

“I’ve just got Poke left,” he said.

“Oh sweet, if you want ideas, I had two things I wanted to get him, but I just went with the one,” Ray said.

Brad nodded and finished off his pizza before he grabbed all of the bags. “Let’s get to it, then. I don’t really want to be here until the place closes.”

 

Because corporate greed was more powerful than basic humanity, the mall was open late, though they promised to close early on Christmas Eve.

But this meant it was dark outside and the crowds had only thinned a little more, to the point that it was easier to navigate, and Brad finally found his directory that pointed them to the store Ray had in mind.

“Well shit,” Ray said, standing in front of the window. “I honestly didn’t think this would sell out.”

"Leave it to the Republic of California Liberals," Brad said. All of the sets of golf clothes were indeed gone, from the shelves and the mannequins.

"This was more of a joke gift anyway. What did you have in mind?"

"Something to do with golf," Brad admitted, shrugging at the empty store window. Then he remembered something. "But I have another idea. Come on." 

Back in the bookstore, Brad found the book he'd noticed earlier about how oppressive the White Man was. 

Ray laughed when he saw it and said he approved. "Now let's get out of here," he said, tugging on Brad’s arm. They had nothing else to do that night, and Brad was looking forward to it, too.

First they had to get though the line though, which was far longer than any bookstore line needed to be, and the time edged closer to midnight. But at least the roads wouldn't be ridiculous going back to their house.

"At least traffic home won't be so bad," Ray said when he noticed it was taking the line years to move. But he was increasingly antsy waiting, so Brad was increasingly annoyed, and distracted from his own discomfort at being surrounded by people all day. 

"What's wrong with you?" he demanded eventually, when Ray's twitching didn't stop. Ray brushed him off and refused to explain no matter how much Brad pushed, so he had to let it go. "You could leave and wait for me out there," Brad said in a last ditch attempt that was also ignored.

Eventually they got to the head of the line and the transaction took less than a minute. And then they were free. 

"Oh thank God," Ray muttered when they were clear to leave. Brad had to agree, his skin had started to crawl and he wanted to be as far away from other humans as he could get.

The lights in the mall were dimmed and the soft yellow ones strung through the decorative trees and shrubbery accounted for most of the illumination.

"Ugh, wait," Ray said, sitting down on one of the low walls that ran down the middle of the walkway. "My feet are killing me," he explained when Brad glared. 

"Car," Brad pointed out. Ray just patted the stone beside him, until Brad sighed and sat down.

The lights here surrounded them, and Brad noticed the mall traffic around had died down. It was just past midnight.

Ray looked tired and Brad couldn’t blame him. The past week had been crazier than leave usually was. And while Ray was a people person, there had been so many in such a short amount of time that they'd barely had any alone time together. Brad suspected that, alongside the fact that he'd blown it off, was part of the reason for Ray insisting on shopping with him.

Brad reached down to his other bag from the bookstore, the one he'd been carrying around all day, and held it out to Ray. 

He blinked down at it and frowned at Brad as he took it. At Brad's nod, he raised an eyebrow and looked inside before he pulled out the book about Bush's administration and the shitty, borderline illegal, things that happened because of 9/11. One part historical, one part conspiracy Brad had bought it the second he saw it.

“Merry Christmas eve morning,” he said, kissing Ray’s head.

“You weren’t supposed to get me anything,” Ray protested, still staring at the book. He was already reading the blurb.

“Tough shit. Let’s go home and go to sleep and never come here again,” Brad said. He stood up and offered his hand to Ray.

Ray took it and smiled at him. “I got you something, too.”

Of course he had. Then Ray slid his arm around Brad’s waist, and Brad pulled him closer by his shoulder, and they walked out of the mall together.

 


End file.
